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Ethnologue: Languages of the World
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Ethnologue > Web version > Country index > Europe > United Kingdom > Scots

Scots

A language of United Kingdom

ISO 639-3: sco

Population  100,000 in United Kingdom (1999 B. Kay). 60,000 in Lallans, 30,000 in Doric, 10,000 in Ulster. Population total all countries: 200,000.
Region  Scotland except highlands; lowlands: Aberdeen to Ayrshire; Northern Ireland. Doric in northeast Scotland; Lallans in South Scotland lowlands; Ulster in Northern Ireland. Also in Ireland.
Language map  Ireland and United Kingdom
Dialects  Doric, Lallans, Ulster. Difficult intelligibility among dialects. Northern Scots on the Scottish Islands is considered by some a different language (Shetlandic or Orcadian). Lallans is main literary dialect. Ulster Scots has a development group. Scots is most similar to English and Frisian.
Classification  Indo-European, Germanic, West, English
Language use  1,500,000 speak it as L2. Home, community. All ages. Also use English.
Language development  Literacy rate in L2: 97% English. Poetry. Magazines. Dictionary. NT: 1901–1984.
Writing system  Latin script.
Comments  SVO; prepositions; genitives, articles, adjectives, numerals before noun heads; relatives without noun heads; question word initial; 2 prefixes, 1 suffix; word order distinguishes subjects, objects, indirect objects, given and new information, topic and comment; affixes indicate genitive case of noun phrase; passives; comparatives; CVC; nontonal. Christian.

Also spoken in:

Ireland

Language name   Scots
Population  100,000 in Ireland (1999 B. Kay). 60,000 in Lallans, 30,000 in Doric, 10,000 in Ulster.
Region  Donegal County.
Language map 
Language use  Home, community. All ages. Also use English.
Comments  Christian.